More grins than gripes over long season

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Brisbane sought a bye after State of Origin, Newcastle were
unable to play at home for the first five rounds and the Warriors
wanted to avoid travelling to Australia for back-to-back matches -
these were among more than 80 club requests met in the NRL's 2005
draw.

Of course, there were gripes, too. South Sydney are unhappy at
being the only club to have played away in the opening round for
each of the past three years (all against the Roosters, who pocket
the gate money), the Broncos are disappointed to get Wests Tigers
and the Rabbitohs as the fellow pool C teams they will host after
nominating Penrith and Newcastle, and Canberra do not want the bye
first up.

Overall, however, the draw for next season, which will begin on
March 11 with the Bulldogs taking on St George Illawarra at Telstra
Stadium, received a positive reaction after its release
yesterday.

"I think we all accept the season probably is too long but the
price of fixing that is too high for our clubs at the moment," NRL
chief executive David Gallop said of the most controversial issue
surrounding the draw.

Between March 11 and the grand final on October 2, 189 matches
will be played over 30 weeks as well as the Anzac Test on April 22,
City versus Country two weeks later and the Origin matches. Other
highlights of the 2005 premiership include:

Brisbane hosting North Queensland in round one;
The Bulldogs-Roosters grand final replay at Telstra Stadium
in round six;
The Roosters-Dragons Anzac Day clash at Aussie Stadium;
Souths and St George Illawarra again playing at the SCG in
round 11; and,
A seventies week in round 24.

In addition, there will be a number of matches played in NRL
outposts, with:
The Bulldogs taking their round 12 home game against the
Cowboys to the Gold Coast and considering moving another one,
possibly the round three clash with Wests Tigers, to Adelaide;
Cronulla playing the Warriors in Perth in round nine;
The Tigers hosting the Warriors in Christchurch in round
five;
Parramatta shifting their round 15 game against the Warriors
to Hamilton and,
The Rabbitohs likely to move their round five home game
against the Knights to Gosford and their round 14 clash with Manly
to North Sydney Oval.

"We've encouraged it. We've helped out logistically and in some
cases financially," Gallop said. "All of those things are nice
little one-offs that help promote our game."

Dragons officials confirmed the joint venture would play seven
matches in Wollongong and five at Kogarah next season, while the
Tigers have reached an agreement to take their five biggest matches
to Telstra Stadium - leaving just three each at Leichhardt and
Campbelltown.

It is expected Parramatta, St George Illawarra, the Roosters,
the Bulldogs and Panthers will be their opponents at Telstra
Stadium, while the round 20 clash with Souths will be played at
Leichhardt Oval.

Brisbane chief executive Bruno Cullen, meanwhile, estimated his
club would be worse off by several hundred thousand dollars after
being drawn to play the Rabbitohs and Tigers at Suncorp Stadium
rather than Penrith and Newcastle.

But Cullen said the Broncos were pleased that their two byes
bookend the Origin series, which will feature two matches in
Brisbane on May 25 and July 6, and will hopefully help arrest the
late-season slump that has afflicted the club over the past two
years.

"Having two byes during the Origin period is giving a rest to
the players who don't need a rest and the Origin blokes don't get a
spell all year," Cullen said. "We're obviously putting two points
up for grabs but the important thing is that when Origin is all
over, our blokes will get a fortnight's spell."

Gallop said the NRL was conscious of the workload faced by
representative players, who will have another end-of-year
Tri-Nations series to contend with.

"It's just tough at the moment. I think that we all accept that
it's very hard on our players, particularly our elite players with
the impact of rep footy, but it's too big a price to play at
clubland to cut games out," he said. "We're certainly not saying
put up with it, we understand it's an issue, but we just can't find
a way around it at the moment."

Rugby League Professionals Association president Tony
Butterfield said: "This is one more reason why the pay-TV and
free-to-air TV deals have to be purchased from the networks at
market value next time."